Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
New research project: regulation of residential tenancies and impacts on investment
Chris Martin City Futures (No paywall)Residential tenancies laws across Australia are on a broadly common ‘consumer protection’ model, but with many differences in the details, including coverage of marginal tenures, notice periods, termination grounds and processes. States’ and territories’ reform processes have mostly been unco-ordinated, and significant divergences and gaps have opened up in the law, particularly for interstate landlords. Reform processes have also had to contend with claims that reforms negatively impact rental investment. The available evidence suggests, on the contrary, that tenancy law reform does not strongly affect investment, but the evidence base needs to be updated to consider changes in the market (e.g. the rise of short-term letting) and expanded to consider how other policy factors (e.g. in financial regulation and taxation) affect the profile and scale of rental investors.
https://blogs.unsw.edu.au/cityfutures/blog/2021/05/new-research-…
# Research alert Australia, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions, Tax.Rental crisis is putting older women at greatest risk of homelessness
John Kidman The New Daily (No paywall)Australia is facing a homelessness crisis and those at greatest risk are among the nearest and dearest: mums and grandmas. ... According to South Australian academics Debbie Faulkner and Laurence Lester, there are about 240,000 women across the nation aged 55 or older at risk of finding themselves without a place to call home. A further 165,000 between the ages of 45 and 64 fall into the same category.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/welfare/2021/05/02/older-wome…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Welfare, Women.With rising energy costs, a growing need to measure energy stress: Supporting lower income households experiencing energy stress
AHURI Brief AHURI (No paywall)When extremes of weather sweep in, either colder or hotter, the impacts of energy poverty for lower income households become severe, with more than 6 per cent of deaths in Australia each year due to living in cold environments and one per cent of deaths heat related. ... The Australian Housing Conditions Dataset 2016 (AHCD) survey of both public and private renters revealed that 18 per cent of public renters, and 14 per cent of private renters, were unable to keep sufficiently warm in winter.
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/ahuri-briefs/with-rising-energ…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Utilities water energy internet, Coronavirus COVID-19.We’ve got way too many “glorified tents” and our death rate from cold is worse than Sweden’s
Duncan Murray The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Poorly insulated rental homes have a major impact in Australia in terms of energy usage, and on the health of tenants, prompting a new campaign for minimum energy efficiency standards on rental properties. Every year 10,000 people die in Australia of causes attributable to the cold, according to the organisers of the Healthy Homes for Renters campaign.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/housing-2/weve-got-way-too-many-gl…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Utilities water energy internet, Campaigns and law reform, Health, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Planning and development.Time to get serious: Australia is missing opportunities to alleviate its spiralling housing crisis
Poppy Johnston The Fifth Estate (No paywall)HOUSING AFFORDABILITY SERIES: Australia is in the grips of a housing affordability crisis but are we doing everything we can to fix it? When the Covid moratorium on evictions ended many people saw housing stress worsen with rising rents and increased homelessness.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/time-to-g…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Housing market.Government wants housing plan to include private investment on public land
Alexandra Smith The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW government will urge the private sector to come up with new development ideas for its extensive public property portfolio as part of a new 20-year plan for housing across the state. Housing Minister Melinda Pavey will launch the government’s first housing strategy and said the plan would ensure the government better delivers housing in city and country areas over 20 years.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/government-wants-housing-pla…
# New policy announcement NSW, Housing market, Planning and development, State Government.NY lawmakers vote to extend eviction moratorium as Brooklyn demonstration leads to arrests
(No paywall)State lawmakers voted Monday to extend the moratorium on evictions. A vote to extend the moratorium to Aug. 31 was expected to be passed last week, but the decision was pushed because of a clerical error. The vote passed on Monday.
That vote came after several demonstrators calling for an end to evictions and rent cancellation were arrested on Monday in Downtown Brooklyn. (News12 Brooklyn)
https://brooklyn.news12.com/police-12-arrested-in-brooklyn-at-de…
# Video International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.The latest data reveals just how insane the Australian housing market has become
Greg Jericho The Guardian (No paywall)With ongoing record low interest rates and government desires to support the market come what may, Australians are taking out home loans in record numbers and as a result house prices look set to keep rising across the country. If you had any doubt that Australia’s housing market is driven more by governments than actual market forces, you need look no further than the latest housing finance data that shows despite a year in which unemployment soared, and the economy staggered, the number of new mortgages taken out in March was 55% higher than it was in March last year.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2021/may/06/the…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, State Government.